Rise of the Runelords

Heading back down the next morning, the way to the bottom of the stairs was clear.  Pushing your way through the webs and secret door, you came into the familiar, fog covered room.  The group, led by Golian and his new fog-cutting lenses, made your way toward the next chamber hoping the fog would not be there.  When you made it about half way, Balros - also in the front - held up his hand, "I hear something coming." Golian, who could see elaborated, "Hounds, a lot of 'em."  Pirozzi acted quickly to cast a silence to cover the group.  You could not tell if the hounds bayed or not.  You started following Golain toward them.  Only Golian could tell they had all stopped short.

Pirozzi noticed a glint behind him.  Turning to see what it was he was confronted by an odd looking humanoid with a raised short sword.  A little panicked and still in the fog and silence, pounded on Malloric's back.  Malloric spun  and could make out Pirozzi gesturing behind himself with one thumb while he made an ugly face and used his other hand to mimic pointy teeth.  Malloric could just make out the creature in the fog and headed to confront it.  Balros, Golian and Henrik noticed Malloric change direction and went to investigate.  Others kept moving forward.

D'Argo left the area of silence and generally knew where he was within the rooms.  He could no longer see that party so let loos with a cone of acid in the direction of the hounds.  He heard some howls of pain, but could not see the result.  Wolfgar was also continuing slow movement forward through the fog.  He stopped as he reached the end and when he could make out about a half dozen shadow mastiffs a few more feet ahead waiting.  Some were licking wounds, others their chops.  They seemed to be waiting.  So Wolfgar stood ready.

The creature proved more dangerous and difficult to attack than anticipated.  As each person approached and got close enough to attack in the fog, the beast turned it's gaze toward them.  Each quickly realized the presence of a supernatural ability even though only Golian decided to avert his eyes while attacking.  Just being in the presence of the creature seemed to affect the ability of your weapons to land true, almost as if the very hand of fate had turned against your skill and luck.  To make matters worse, each blow that you did land created another surge of supernatural energy about the creature.  It didn't deal too much damage and disappeared back into the aether after you finally landed enough blows and Henrik's smite evil landed truly.

The main group was still in silence and resorted to hand signals for communication which was still challenging in the thick fog.  Moments later, a barghest appeared in the spot that the previous summoned creature occupied.  It quickly backed up and let loose with the now familiar waves of crushing despair.  Most were unaffected.  All but Pirozzi and those on the other side of the room approached and quickly destroyed it.  Henrik, now at the edge of the silence heard sounds of spell casting and moved toward them.  Soon he, and Malloric were facing the man only Malloric had seen yesterday.  Edwin and Balros soon joined the group.  Henrik asked for a moment of parley if he would cease hostilities to which the man agreed.  The man in the tattered leathers put his fingers to his mouth and let out a whistle.  This was the first thing Wolfgar had heard in a while and noticed the hounds become more relaxed.  He still did not let down his guard.

The normal questions of who are you? Whare are you from? What do you want? were asked by both sides.  It seemed that this man who called him self Xaliasa, or The Scribbler, was himself a little confused about why he was here and even how and why.  He appeared to be from the distant past as he was very interested in the political situation above.  The best you were able to determine, he was 'from' several thousands of year prior, which would place him possibly even before the origin of the Baklunae, although none of you were sure of the history and he had no recollection of any of it. Xaliasa denied being the source of the sinkhole and insisted that he was brought here by the same force that shook Ardrinn. The Scribbler did not take well to Malloric's suggestion that everyone should go back up to discuss all this with the authorities.  He put his fingers to his mouth again. This time the whistle was different.  The hounds responded by all baying at once.  Edwin, Balros and Golian started to flee in fear.  The fog cleared with a wave of The Scibbler's hand. He then concentrated, disappearing from where he was to reappear behind the hounds.  D'Argo, finally able to see responded with another cone of acid.  Pirozzi moved up for a better view and lobbed in a fireball.  After the smoke and acrid fog cleared, the hounds were gone, but Xaliasa stood unhurt.  Wolfgar moved up.  The rest of the group started crossing the room. In a slight miscalculation of distance, Wolfgar allowed The Scribbler the first attack.  It was brutal.  Wolfgar returned blows.  The scribblers next swings almost killed Wolfgar.  The rest of the party, save those fleeing, were now on the scene and started melee. Henrik moved up and laid hands on Wolfgar to stabilize him.  You started to force the Scribbler back and he dropped out of combat to heal himself.  Melee began anew.  Some of those who had fled were starting to return.  The group beat him down again.  Balros disarmed the Scribbler, depriving him of the wicked, serrated falchion that had been doing so much damage.  Deprived of his most potent offense, the Scribbler again concentrated and disappeared, leaving the sword behind.

Edwin reappeared and many cures were cast before you moved on.  You moved through a few more passages and rooms all covered with the nonsensical script.  You came to a nearly completely intact room with one door blocking the only exit.  Malloric and Henrik moved to bash it open when all felt a wave of power sweep over the group.  Some of the group felt as though others had been affected but thought nothing more of it.  Others in the group thought others had been affected and were contemplating evil thoughts.   Still others became a bit paranoid as they were being accused of thoughts they did not have.  Yet others thought the best course of action was to return to the surface.  Some of the group started to head back when D'Argo cast an expeditious retreat to catch up.  Wolfgar thought he might be attacking and lunged, tackling D'Argo as he moved by.  Henrik moved to Malloric to whisper in his ear.  This made Edwin nervous as he thought one of them was plotting something evil.  Soon the skirmish was over and Henrik and Malloric ignored the group and pushed the door open.  The chaos had cost you precious time in finding the Scribbler.

A door at the end of the hall led to a sparsely furnished room.  The only thing of any notice was a  well preserved corpse resting on a chair; it's arms full of narrow slits.  On a writing desk were several vials of inks of different colors.  D'Argo thought they might be spell quality.  Searching the room and finding nothing, you slowly made your way back to the entrance, checking along the way for places to hide or other secret rooms you missed.  In the main part of this level, you found a few well concealed doors. Each led ultimately to a collapsed dead end, but some had rooms along the way.  No sign of the Scribbler, but Edwin did 'find' three more stanzas of the Scribbler's work.

You made it back to the surface and consulted with the authorities saying that the immediate threat is gone, but the Scribbler got away and there with his intentions unclear, the threat to Ardinn cannot truly be determined.  You went to clean up and get something to eat.

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